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Gunman Derrick Bird's funeral takes place

2010-06-19 28 Dailymotion


Mass killer Derrick Bird's funeral took place on Friday, the final of 13 services held in just a week.


Friends and some relatives gathered to commemorate his life at Distington Crematorium, also the funeral venue for several of Bird's victims.


But not all members of his family felt able to attend.


In a statement, the family of his twin brother David, Bird's first victim, said: "We send our love and support to our grandma, auntie, uncle and cousins on this difficult day.


"As you can imagine this has been a very hard time for our family and at this present moment we do not feel physically and emotionally strong enough to attend the funeral."


Earlier in the day the youngest person to die at the hands of Derrick Bird was laid to rest. Jamie Clark, 23, was driving through Seascale, Cumbria when Bird opened fire on him.


Family, friends and colleagues were at the Vale Crematorium in Luton to pay their respects.


Speaking ahead of the service, Mr Clark's fiancee Lianne Jarman revealed she was in one of the villages where Bird killed two other people.


The 21-year-old described how she was bundled into a cafe in Egremont by a police officer just half an hour before the man she planned to marry was murdered.


She said she heard the shot that killed Susan Hughes, and was trying to call Mr Clark when Kenneth Fishburn was also killed.


When she heard news of his death, she said: "I will never forget that day - it was the worst day of my life. I screamed the place down when I heard.


"Then I was just numb. It was pure disbelief that it had happened. I thought it was a nightmare and I was going to wake up.


"He was my soul mate, not just my fiance."


Derrick Bird went on a horrific rampage across Cumbria on June 2, killing 12 people and then turning a gun on himself.